Page 2 - Virtual Vascular Volume 7

ustom made endografts are tailored made to accommodate patients’
PREFACE
Preface Canatomy often with the aim of increasing the landing zone and seal.

This is a thoracic endograft with a wide “scallop” to accommodate the left
common carotid artery, and a distal “fenestration” for bridging the left sub-

clavian artery.

Vascular Surgery is a challenging specialty due to the nature of the surgery,
often involving vital organ, in emergency situations, and demanding skills.

Detailed planning, execution with precision, and a high sense of suspicion is
key to success. Simply performing an operation is only often the start of a long

process of treatment, dealing with potential complications, surveillance, and
secondary interventions.

The winter months are always associated with more complications. In this

unique issue we present several rare, but important and potentially life
threatening complications associated with endovascular surgery, from
retrograde type A dissection, to paraplegia, pulmonary embolism to colon

necrosis to stent graft infection. These happened in QMH and in HKU-SZH.
While traditional open surgery can incur more major and systemic
complications, endovascular surgery is not without risks. We should always

learn from these complications and try to prevent them from happening again.

Stephen Cheng
Head, Department of Surgery

2 3